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Fridtjof Nansen had a daring idea: freeze his ship, the Fram, into the Arctic ice and let the ocean currents carry it across the top of the world. This first volume takes you through the long drift, the polar night, birthdays on the ice, bears, and science done in deep cold. It ends in the second autumn, with Nansen planning an even bolder sledge journey. His calm courage makes the frozen dark feel alive.
Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian scientist, skier and explorer, proposed an idea that sounded insane: build a ship strong enough to be frozen deliberately into the Arctic ice, and let the transpolar current carry her across the top of the world. The Fram was built round and immensely strong for exactly that purpose, and in 1893 she sailed into the ice north of Siberia. Farthest North, published in 1897, is Nansen's narrative of the drift.
This first volume covers the voyage out, the freezing in, and the long polar nights of the first two years aboard: scientific observations, birthdays in the dark, bears at the ship, and the slow, grinding drift that proved the current existed but showed the Fram would pass far from the Pole itself. It ends in the autumn of 1894 with Nansen preparing his bold remedy, a dash by sledge and kayak toward the Pole with one companion, which the second volume recounts. His descriptions of ice, aurora and endurance are superb.
Nansen later became a statesman and humanitarian, and the seeds show here: courage joined to method. Anyone who loves exploration, the Arctic, or leadership under monotony and danger will be enthralled.
Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian scientist and explorer, deliberately froze his ship the Fram into the Arctic ice in 1893, trusting the drift to carry her across the polar sea. This first volume of Farthest North follows the building of the Fram, the voyage, and the first two winters in the ice, closing in autumn 1894. It offers a bold experiment in exploration, told with science, humor, and endurance.
This is Volume I only. Nansen's account of the Fram expedition ends with Chapter VIII, Second Autumn in the Ice, and the printed line End of Vol. I, in the autumn of 1894. His celebrated sledge dash toward the Pole in 1895, his winter in Franz Josef Land and the journey home belong to Volume II and are not in this file. A short publisher's note on his colored sketches opens the volume.
The idea carried in these chapters was revolutionary: instead of fighting the Arctic ice, freeze a specially built ship into it and let the transpolar drift do the travelling. After chapters on preparations and equipment come the start, the farewell to Norway and the voyage through the Kara Sea into the pack. The Winter Night and The Spring and Summer of 1894 record the drift's slow confirmation, the scientific routine, birthdays and darkness endured aboard a ship beset but safe.
The volume closes with Nansen's plan for a sledge expedition from the Fram, the gamble Volume II would redeem. Read it as a theory proved in real time, at walking pace, in the dark.
Edition: Volume I. Text: Project Gutenberg ebook 30197.
The first chapter
The Author had not originally contemplated the publication of the colored sketches which are produced in this work. He has permitted their reproduction because they may be useful as showing color effects in the Arctic; but he wishes it understood that he claims no artistic merit for them.
Source: Project Gutenberg. Published 1897. Author died 1930. Public domain worldwide. Share this book: WhatsApp
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